re: #570 cliffster

This misses the point entirely. Social Security was designed to pretty much force people to set aside money for their old age. This doesn’t work if you spend it all instead. Getting through the baby boom doesn’t fix anything, the problem is still, you’re spending all the money you’re supposed to be setting aside.

No, SS was not designed to force people to set aside money. It was designed to pay out a certain amount of money to people in their old age, after they were past the point of working, to prevent lots of old age poverty.

The funding for SS happens to be tied to taxation that then links to the amount of money people can draw out of it, to a certain extent. But SS could exist as a payout only without a dedicated tax.

One of the problems of SS is that the tax and the payouts are conflated when they don’t really have to be.

You are right that it’s designed to give the illusion that you’re setting aside money.

And the government shouldn’t dip into the SS fund because the continued operation of SS is absolutely vital. But that’s yet another issue.